Market trends attract multiple players, North American medical manufacturer Spectra enters e-commerce

Spectra Medical Devices is a family-owned business that makes needles used in pain management procedures, such as epidurals and peripheral nerve blocks, as well as other medical products.

For decades, the company has sold merchandise including needles , syringes , scalpels , disposable surgical instruments and medicines through large distributors such as Owens and Minor Distribution and Cardinal Health .

But for now, Spectra also relies on direct sales to end customers through its recently launched B2B e-commerce website and its sales force.

In medical device manufacturing, manufacturers often sell products to distributors under white label contracts, in which the distributor brands the manufacturer’s products and sells them to resellers and end customers.

Additionally, such distribution contracts also make sense for small and medium-sized medical device manufacturers that may lack the marketing , logistics, and sales resources to sell directly to end customers .

But now, in response to new market demands and to increase its own resources to sell directly to end customers, Spectra Medical has begun selling its own brand products through its e-commerce website and sales force . It is thus building new relationships with customers who prefer to consume through online channels .

"Demand for our needles continues to grow, and we have reached a scale where we have the engineering manpower and resources to sell directly , " said CEO Tony Arrigo.

Spectra's e-commerce site is meeting the needs of physicians and medical institutions to order products on demand, one or two boxes at a time, rather than in bulk.

Spectra Medical's website, which launched in February, is integrated with Oracle NetSuite's enterprise resource planning platform for manufacturers. The site allows qualified buyers to view available inventory in real time and make purchases without submitting a purchase order. The site automatically calculates shipping costs at checkout based on the customer's order value and destination.

Once the order is shipped, the buyer will receive an email with a tracking code and estimated delivery date.

Although Spectra developed the site in less than two months, the company delayed its launch while it waited for approval from the FDA and European regulators to sell medical devices under its own brand. The company also needed time to build enough inventory for the site, which took about six months.

Currently, Spectra Medical offers about 10 percent of its catalog through an e-commerce site that uses WooCommerce's e-commerce technology and Oracle NetSuite's content management system, according to Builtwith.

However, Anthony Arrigo, Spectra's director of global sales and marketing, said the manufacturer plans to increase available products as it builds inventory to support e-commerce sales.

In addition to needles, Spectra's website offers masks and hand sanitizer , prescription medications such as single-dose vials of lidocaine hydrochloride injection , and disposable surgical instruments , syringes and scalpels .

Spectra’s direct-to-customer online channel also provides manufacturers with more control over pricing and their own margins, allowing them to be competitive in the market, the company said . Spectra declined to comment on whether the new DTC channel has led to channel conflicts with its distributors, who continue to service high-volume label contracts.

In addition to the growing demand for needles, Spectra Medical has invested in expanding manufacturing and warehouse capacity, changes that pave the way for selling products directly to buyers. The new automated manufacturing facility is scheduled to open at the end of the second quarter, which will improve consistency and reduce international lead delivery times.

Going forward, Spectra Medical intends to continue adding more products to its website and developing new products based on industry demand .

North America

Medical

E-commerce

Spectra